Professionals in the Construction Industry Network

Business, and success in business, requires relationships, so Social Networking would appear to be the ideal tool. It needs to be carefully and thoughtfully applied though. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So, with Social Networking one should be aware of how and when one is using it for lead generation, building a community of loyal fans, providing customer support, or just keeping in touch. Another important factor to consider is identity. I’m not talking about credentials, but rather who is being represented, the individual or the business? This is probably not too much of a concern for small businesses where the owner’s personality is blended with the brand. While it is taboo for a politician or celebrity to delegate their Tweeting to someone else, a large organisation is infact separate from the people who run it, so the Social Networking responsibilities often fall to the marketing department by default. However, the marketing department is not the only point of contact that customers, or potential customers, have with a business. A business using Social Networking sites should reflect that, ensuring that at least Sales and Customer Support have an involvement.

If a business is made up of individuals, how does that business get meaningfully represented in a social network? One option, and I’m surprised it was not mentioned in the Computers in Business magazine is CoTweet. It is designed for businesses using Twitter to engage existing customers and attract new ones. CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so.

Of course, microblogging is not just for external communication either. Increasingly, social networks have been appearing within the enterprise too. Yammer and Present.ly both provide private microblogging with features tailored for the workplace, like the ability to add attachments and to communicate in subgroups. Those who have found it useful report that email traffic is down, but information sharing and collaboration is up. Those who didn’t find it useful are still wondering what the fuss is about. It’s just another stream of information one has to struggle keep up with.

The use of social networks in the enterprise for internal or external communication does need to be carefully considered. In particular, one needs to be aware of what existing communication processes are being supported, and what new communication processes are required. This is where the adoption of social networks for business can struggle, not recognising the opportunity to use the technology to support new ways of doing business.